MARSHALL – If you like the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” then you should check out Great Escape Stage Company’s radio-style production.

It stays faithful to the original, while delivering a refreshing change of pace to sitting in front of a TV screen.

The theater is set up as a radio station, one side dedicated to mics for the actors, and the other half for all of the paraphernalia needed to create the sound effects.

It’s the sound effects that really steal the show.

You could sit in your seat and close your eyes to enjoy the experience of hearing the story play out in your head.

Randy Lake does a good job impersonating Jimmy Stewart’s Western Pennsylvania drawl, and after the show I overheard someone commenting on Tim Culver’s spot-on impersonation of the show’s villain, Mr. Potter.

But then you’d miss out on the fun. Lauri Rowe and Cameron Lake slam doors, break glass and pop balloons, elevating the show beyond a simple — if very good — script reading. It’s amazing how shaking a box of Corn Flakes sounds like the crunch of feet in snow.

Cameron Lake is the show’s surprising stand-out. When he wasn’t performing a symphony of sound or gamely taking a beating from Rowe while Randy Lake pretended to be the one getting hit, he lent a deeply sonorous voice to the extended cast.

If it had really been a radio performance, you never would have been able to tell that the father and son talking were actually reversed in age, with the older Randy giving voice to young George and young Cameron as the all-wise father. It added an ironic element to the proceedings.

That’s the magic of theater: with a voice and some everyday objects, you can be anyone or anywhere and an entire movie is recreated.

Of course, some concessions are made to the format. It’s not a straight script reading — the characters have to drop descriptions and clues of what they’re seeing. One of the best of these moments was when Culver plays a sultry trumpet melody as the character Violet is supposed to enter a room. You don’t need to see Violet or her dress to know exactly what you need to know.

There are eight actors in the production, but more characters than that. In some surreal moments, one person plays multiple characters at once, which leads to Culver arguing with himself or Alan Elliot becoming a one-man party.

Without the usual physical cues, the cast still pulls off the funny moments and the frightening parts. Janice Darling demonstrated a great sense of comic timing,while Randy Lake puts such intensity into George’s break-down that it almost overwhelms the small theater.

It brings a sense of earnestness that cuts through sentimental trimmings to the sweet and melancholy heart of the story.

This isn’t about bells ringing — I mean, really, if it were supposed to be that easy for angels, Clarence would have 100 wings by now. It’s about being well-meaning but not exactly successful.

It’s always a surprise how much of the story is dedicated to recounting Bailey’s life and all of the ways he’s held back.

The boy who wished for adventure never gets to leave the borders of his town. Instead of touring Europe and attending college, he takes over his father’s business. Instead of going on a honeymoon trip, he has to give out his own money to save Bailey Building and Loan. Instead of living in New York City, he is in a house that’s more romantic than practical.

The scenes of Bailey finding himself in an alternate universe where he never existed is really only a slight portion of the plot — but it stands out for being so gripping. The man with an easy laugh finally explodes and almost convinces himself that he’s worth more dead than alive.

If the first two-thirds of the story is about a life of small deeds, the last third is about the effects of those deeds. Anyone who loves time travel movies knows this: Just stepping on a butterfly can cause a chain of events with cataclysmic events.

Without Bailey’s small acts of kindness, the people in his life meet terrible fates: imprisonment, death, prostitution, insanity, a job at a library.

For all the dire consequences to a George-less life, though, it’s really the last five minutes that pull it all together. Even the crabbiest heart must warm when the townspeople gather around the Bailey family and prove a life of small, good deeds isn’t meaningless.